Latest Survey Revealed Largest Private Payroll Decline in Record

The U.S. private employers laid off a record of 20.236 million workers in April as the coronavirus pandemic took the country’s economy into a standstill.

The recently published ADP National Employment Report shows the largest decline in records since the survey begun in 2002. It has also exceeded the 834,665 job cuts in February 2009 or during the Great Recession.

Data from March was revised from 27,000 (the first reported decline since September 2017) to 149,000 job cuts.

The decrease in private payrolls stems from the enforced national lockdowns to lessen the human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus. Reuters suggests that the effects of the mandatory business closures will leave a lasting dent in the economy even the country reopens non-essential businesses.

Fox Business, however, argues that the ADP study does not represent the “actual damage inflicted by the stay-at-home measures” since the data presented were collected through April 12 only.

Since the novel coronavirus took its toll in U.S. soil, job losses jump into all-time highs. The Labor Department revealed over 30 million Americans have filed for jobless benefits, rounding off the unemployment rate to 18.5 %.

The leisure and hospitality industry sector shed the most job losses totaling to 8.61 million and 40% of the private sector job losses, as bars and restaurants were forced to close.

The trade, transportation, and utilities placed second with 3.44 million declines, followed by construction (2.48 million), manufacturing (1.67 million), professional and business services (1.16 million), administrative and support services (1.12 million), and healthcare and social assistance (1 million).

The education and management sector were the only two industries reported to add jobs last month with 28,000 and 6,000 increase, respectively.

Jayde is a professional freelance writer with years of experience covering consumer tech, finance, and science. He has worked with various media outlets both online and on paper such as Z6Mag, News Every Day, and other small-time publications.